Melbourne duo Two People showcases the songwriting chemistry shared by the ongoing creative partnership of Phoebe Lou and Joey Clough.
Formerly members of now-defunct group Snakadaktal, Phoebe and Joey have spent years writing and making music together. “After our previous band stopped making music it felt like a natural progression to start doing some stuff together and make more of a project where we wanted to put music out into the world,” Joey says.
Phoebe adds: “We've always made music together, so it felt pretty inevitable to at least give it a shot.”
Give it a shot they most certainly have, with the release this month (18 January) of their debut full-length album 'First Body', a collection of songs Phoebe and Joey have been diligently crafting since starting the project in 2015.
For Phoebe, she's curious to see how listeners respond to the music of Two People. “One of our biggest goals in making music is to create something unique to us, and I definitely hope people take it as unique,” she says.
“But at the same time I definitely believe music feels, looks and sounds different to everyone so I'm really excited to see what different responses we might get. We play with a lot of different ideas in our music and sound – blending electronic [and] rave sounds with very human, singer-songwriter sounds. I'm fascinated to see what people think... we've tried our best to capture this world we're creating.”
With 'First Body' due mid-January, Phoebe and Joey are turning their focus to translating the songs from studio to stage in preparation for upcoming live shows. “It's definitely a process because our recorded music is very much a studio, experimental, electronic-based thing,” Joey explains.
“Live versions of the songs didn't exist before we made the record, so we had to go back and work out how to translate it live. What we wanted to do for the last show was really push the experimental and improvised side of things, so we left a lot of arrangements open and there have been parts of the set that we're making up each night.
“It's been tricky to work out how to play this electronic music live, and we really wanted to focus on making it feel alive and not just a sterile electronic show. We've found that the experimental, improvised side of things was where we could really get that live feeling across.”
Both Phoebe and Joey agree the strength of Two People lies in their live performance, which hinges on recreating the intimacy and warmth of their studio work onstage. “I think in terms of where we're going and how things are developing, our live show has had a big impact on that,” Phoebe says.
“Considering we were recording in our own little studio, things are quite small-scale and intimate, and that definitely comes across on the record. But I think now we're starting to share our live show around and working on that, there's more momentum building up in our sound and we'll be exploring that more.”
